Do you tip for extremely poor service?

My God, a lot of you are cheap motherfuckers. Provided you are American, its straight up morally wrong to not tip at a restaurant unless your server is a straight up asshole to you.

@truthtellah: I'm certainly sympathetic to jobs that rely on tipping, because my mom was a hairdresser, and I have a lot of friends who are servers. But the fact is if tipping exists then I feel it remains an option, even if only for these incredible fringe cases. A delivery driver that takes two hours shouldn't get a tip any more than a stylist who cuts your ear off.

being over an hour late for delivery = no tip. Wanna get paid? Do your goddamn job.

Tipping is always on the table, even when jobs don't regularly involve tipping. But as far as a recommendation when it comes to extremely poor service, I'd say leaving no tip or an extremely small tip is your best option. But, hey, you can give them a 40% tip if you want. It's your money.

Tipping is always on the table, even when jobs don't regularly involve tipping. But as far as a recommendation when it comes to extremely poor service, I'd say leaving no tip or an extremely small tip is your best option. But, hey, you can give them a 40% tip if you want. It's your money.

I always tip, no matter what, however if the service is excellent then I will go ahead and tip way above.

if it sucks, I never see my server, order is blatantly wrong and they don't try sincerely to fix it etc. well I'll still tip, but here's why, leaving nothing, you're just a dick, leaving a very specific amount of change that is not what they gave you back if you payed cash for example makes a point, "I went out of my way to leave you a really shit tip like 56 cents and a button, that's all you deserve so shape the fuck up."

I just tip less. I only didn't tip once because the hour I had allowed for lunch wasn't long enough because my waitresses, in a restaurant that had only myself and a colleague in it, were unable to do their job. It took them 45 minutes to take our orders. It made me late for an assessment I was running. So I didn't leave a tip and haven't been there again.

@mcghee said:

Agree with everything said.

Yeah, there are too many factors to consider to just stiff someone. I empathize with employees because a lot of stuff is outside their control and they do not have the power or resources to make things right. If it's busy, it's busy; I cannot expect 19-year-old kids to dedicate themselves to a part-time job by coming in and helping on their day off.

I'm not one to complain the second I'm inconvenienced, either; I cannot expect everything to go right all the time. If I had a bad experience, I'd rather go someplace else instead of writing a scathing review on fucking Yelp or whatever.

A tip is supposed to be my voluntary show of appreciation for their good service. I almost always tip. If the service is above average and pleasant i will tip more. If its shitty, makes me wait more than i should, Isn't on time, ect. then fuck them. If its super late delivery, then yeah, fuck off I'm not tipping. I'm not going to give them pity money out of guilt when i had a bad experience. If i'm eating out I'm trying to have a good evening. If they ruined that, they ruined my night, im not going to pay them for that.

"oh but they could be super busy! Or maybe he got stuck in a traffic jam, ect. ect. ect." that is not my problem. When i order food for delivery i expect it in a timely manner, thats the entire point. If it doesn't arrive in a reasonable amount of time, the delivery guy is not getting tipped.

You can live comfortably off of minimum wage in some states (depends on the wages and the living costs, here in NC it's feasible because rent is decent), but it's a very fragile existence. You might make enough to pay the bills, but good luck not being able to afford health insurance or having anything resembling a savings account. If something happens to go wrong (car breaks down, hospitalized) be prepared to be a very unhappy individual.

@cameron: The wages vary by state. In North Carolina the state actually makes up the difference if you work a job that pays less than the minimum wage and didn't make enough via tips.

If they don't deserve tip just don't tip.

I follow this.

My father was a waiter at a big restaurant for a long time, and he would kick my ass if I didn't leave a tip. Even for shitty service I leave something. I tip more than average for decent service, around 20% and if the service is great I'll tip more than that based on what I can afford. It seems fucked up to me to not leave something if you're living in the US.

I tip significantly less and then I leave the biggest, nastiest floater in the toilet.

I don't tip much as it is, so poor service would get nothing from me.

Unless the waiter/waitress is a total asshole I tip normally, if they are an asshole they get the penny treatment.

If it's bad service, but they were not rude, I tip low. If it's actively rude service I do not tip.

I would feel embarrassed in Holland to tip someone.

I always find this topic somewhat interesting, because I'm Australian and we don't do tipping (except for footy tipping). The part that I find weird is when people bring up how they're ok with supplementing the income of the waiting staff with tips, because if their wages are low, the prices of the menu items stays low. Seems like you end up spending about the same either way, just with more jumping through hoops.

It definitely is a weird cultural thing. Americans might think us rude for not tipping, but then from our point of view, the idea of having to give them some extra money because their employer pays them a pittance seems messed up.

me too, except I still tip for shitty service and sometimes I'll leave a bigger tip if the service was fantastic. Typically I do that if I go to a restaurant during lunch service, cause god damn no one makes any money during the damn lunch service.

I was a bus boy in California working two other jobs for a while and never expected to be tipped out by the servers.

I tip, but significantly less. I realize it's probably not completely the waiter/waitress' fault, so I give at least something.

Never tip, ever.

I pretty much always tip a $5 minimum unless I am broke. I usually go out during happy hour at a nearby place, the Neighborhood Bar and Grill, and get a $5 burger for dinner after work, or a $5 5oz steak on Wednesdays. I tip $5 for a $5.42 meal. Working in an industry like that has got to suck, and I always come in late, at the end of their day. Who knows how much crap they've put up with all day? I try to tip well and legitimately seem grateful for the service I get to just try and make the end of their day a little easier.

I pretty much always tip a $5 minimum unless I am broke. I usually go out during happy hour at a nearby place, the Neighborhood Bar and Grill, and get a $5 burger for dinner after work, or a $5 5oz steak on Wednesdays. I tip $5 for a $5.42 meal. After $30 I start tipping more than $5, usually a couple bucks every $10. At $60~ I tip $12-$14.

Working in an industry like that has got to suck and I always come in late, at the end of their day. Who knows how much crap they've put up with all day? I try to tip well and legitimately seem grateful for the service I get to just try and make the end of their day a little easier.

I find this most adequate.

Hell no. In the first place, why would you tip? It's part of their job description.

No tip, no worries.

Hell no.

I never tip the guys who deliever the food, why would I? They didn't make it, right? All they do is drive to me and give it to me. Do you tip your postman too? That guy probably deserves it more than the Pizza-delivery guy.

I almost always tip something. For average I will tip 3 dollars or 10% whichever is higher. For good service I will tip at least 5. For bad I probably leave a buck. For a driver that delivered my food two hours after I ordered it? I am probably not going to tip jack unless they are very professional when they do the delivery then they will get a buck.

I only tip if the service is marvellous and exceptional.

I don't ever tip.

Eh, I know I shouldn't, but I still do. I know having a shitty job like waiter or delivery guy is no excuse to be a shitty employee, but it pulls my heart strings a bit.

Yeah I tip... the table over and storm out of the restaurant.

I tip normally, but only using a bunch of low value coins. That'll show 'em!

people who don't tip on poor service clearly have never worked service jobs. there's no other industry that has specially negotiated wages (server's wage) that's often LOWER than minimum. additionally, there's no other industry where a self-righteous patron has a direct effect on a employee's daily wages. oh and lets not forget that even if you do tip, they still have to tip out the house often.

the US would collapse if other employees were subject to the same treatment. speaking on matters relevant to this site- best buy and gamestop employees would perpetually be in the poor house if quality of service influenced their hourly rate.

I tip less. Case in point: Hairdresser. If s/he shuts the fuck up, s/he gets about double or more of what a talky hairdresser gets from me. I want a hair cut, not insipid small-talk.

I've worked a job before where tips, even just the good will behind them, were the only thing to get me through a shitty day. Yeah, I tip generously no matter what.

For the record, this probably reflects MORE poorly than a simple "not tipping," as it indicates you weren't just cheapskates and actually had a bad experience. You WERE willing to tip, and spend $45, but their service did not earn a good tip; this is the "smarter" way to get a bad server "talked to."

This is probably my response, but they did already say the sandwich should be here "any minute," indicating the sandwich being en route or at least ready. Unless that dude got in a car accident on the way over, there's not really a good reason it'd take another hour. Call, find out what's going on, and if the answer isn't an emergency or the in-house staff, don't tip if the sandwich arrives. Either way, don't order from there again.

I don't believe in tipping unless the person is exceptionally pleasant.

You get paid a wage, the tip being expected is quite ridiculous.

Maybe I just live in a sensible country.

not in the united states. it's enshrined in law. read this.

and before everyone says 'they know what they're signing up for.' that may be true- but why do you feel obligated to financially punish people (as opposed to speaking to their manager/supervisor, or writing a note on the check that says, 'tighten up the service- i won't be coming back.')